8 Ways Today’s Healthcare Website Design Influences Patient Choice

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28 Feb, 2024

healthcare-website-design-tips

Introduction

Are you looking for a dynamic and interactive healthcare website design? Are you unsure about the functionality and performance of your current website? We can get you on the right track and design a website that is uniquely catered to your needs and practice.

The healthcare landscape has taken a dramatic leap. And the businesses in the healthcare sector need to be bolstered by high-functional and dynamic medical websites. A website design can say a lot about the type of practice you operate. If it’s well organized, attractive and invites people to get in touch with you, it can be a tremendous boost to both your practice and your reputation. That’s why design should be a high priority when you’re ready to build your own website.

Why?

In today’s digital age, the healthcare industry is at a turning point where it is primed for disruption. Most people still prefer to find the right medical information online. This is why and this is where a well-designed medical website can make a difference. A pediatrician’s office may be painted with brightly colored walls and consist of a built-in play area for toddlers, while a doctor who specializes in cardiac may display framed photos of heart images. Offices are designed to appeal to the practice's population, and healthcare web design is no different.

Without stepping through your doors, patients cannot recognize what is special about your medical practice. With trending medical website design principles along with usability best practices, medical sites can create a niche. They can be a brilliant platform to show prospective patients what your practice has to offer and the level of care they can expect when they come in for a visit.

A patient experience trends report from doctor.com shares that nearly 37% of healthcare consumers are deterred from a medical practice that has an old-fashioned or hard-to-navigate website. Healthcare consumers expect to see fully functional, dynamic and modern website design conventions on every healthcare website they visit, but they also notice what makes one medical practice different from another.

Transforming Patient Journeys through the Digital Revolution

Medical web design is like a virtual lobby – an inviting website that streamlines and facilitates action steps (online appointment scheduling, easy-to-access physician profiles, patient onboarding paperwork, and online bill pay) will make an excellent impression on visitors and also augment the whole patient experience. Such efforts can keep your website at the forefront of design, rank well, and convert better. Keep reading to learn more about some of the key design principles for medical websites.

Picture this if you want to schedule a dentist appointment what is the first thing you will search for? One of the first things you may do is run a quick search for dentists before scheduling an appointment. Many healthcare consumers start their journey by finding providers online. So, it’s straightforward; if you build an online platform that provides accurate medical information, people will value it. As you take steps to revamp your website, you also want to evaluate how well your brand personality is reflected.

Typical-Patient-Journey-Driven-by-Digital-Tools

This article will provide you with the ultimate web design guide for healthcare websites. It will help you create a personalized experience that is engaging, easy to use, and meet the needs of your digital-first patients. And as a bonus, we have concluded the article with a handy list of some of the most successful healthcare design trends at the forefront of the medical industry’s digital landscape.

Here’s a peek into some crucial statistics.

  • Around 5% of all Google searches are health-related
  • In the U.S., experts expect healthcare advertising spending to increase by 5% in 2021 and 2022
  • In most major healthcare verticals, nearly 60% of consumers run a search prior to scheduling an appointment
  • 94% of healthcare patients look at online reviews to evaluate providers

Medical Web Design Principles that Help Boost Patient Experience

1. Fully Responsive to Mobile and Tablets

According to a study, 74% of people are more likely to return to a website if it is optimized for mobile devices. Here’s another statistic highlighting that 85% of adults think that a company’s website should be as good or better than its desktop website when viewed on a mobile device. Responsive web design allows pages to automatically format and function well on a smartphone.

Healthcare-Industry

What can you do about it?

You can apply the (KIS) keep it simple web design principle and choose a minimalist design. Furthermore, you can consider using a CMS that offers automatic mobile responsiveness.  A simple design most often contributes to faster load times and happier consumers.

Implement these tips for a mobile-friendly medical website design:

  • Optimize your homepage- To optimize your website for mobile, you need to start analyzing the entire thing from a mobile perspective. You can place a long-scrolling homepage with quick bursts of information.
  • Feature a hamburger navigation menu- For a viewer you need to make sure that they should be able to access the content most relevant to them. The hamburger menu is a standard navigation pattern for mobile apps and websites. This type of menu allows mobile users to see all menu items in a dropdown format.
  • Let visitors click and call- When your patient is convinced to set an appointment, the first thing they want to do is make a call as soon as possible. After all, mobile search accounts for 48% of calls to businesses.

At JanBask, we employ people who have years of experience in creating and developing websites for niches. With us you can be rest assured that your brand personality and core mission come across strongly to the viewers.

2. Ensure it is Interactive

Developing-a-healthcare-website

Do you employ interactive content to influence the patient’s journey? Are you wondering why you need one?

Well, interactivity can help boost engagement and also achieve your conversion goals. Here are some remarkable stats.

  • According to a study, 79% of content marketers (respondents) agreed that interactive content enhances the reputation of a brand’s message and 79% thought this content led to repeat visitors and greater online exposure.
  • In yet another study, 88% of marketers stated that interactive content differentiates them from their competitors
  • Interactive content wins two times more engagement than static content

What can you do to make websites interactive?

Interactive forms, clear CTA buttons and patient portals are great ways to make your website interesting and interactive. Such options can help your website to outshine the competition. Our talented team of web developers and designers have the right skills and expertise to make your website highly engaging and interactive. Moreover, your site should provide a patient portal that encourages your patients to take up more active roles while managing their care.

3. Ensure Easy Navigation

Picture this--consumers devote a lot of time online, and if they can’t find information easily on products and services, it can be an annoying experience. Someone who’s sick and looking for medical assistance will never struggle to find solutions with an unintuitive website.

According to a recent study, 94% of consumers indicate that easy navigation is the most important website feature. If the navigation is easy, then users can immediately find information, saving time and effort.

What’s the solution?

When creating your website, there are certain navigation tools used to create the best possible healthcare web design and our team of experts at JanBask Digital Design know exactly how to do it. Let’s take a look on the following tips:

  • A well-designed menu- When developing a medical website, make sure that there is a well-designed menu with drop-downs and different pages for different services and facilities. A well-designed menu that displays your most important pages and uses a hierarchical structure to indicate can create a great impact in your viewer’s mind.

What-can-you-do-to-make-websites-interactive

  • Clear calls-to-action- CTAs play an important role in making your client consider your services to walk into your office. With clear instruction in your content, you can direct and lead your viewers to high-priority pages

Our team of experts at JanBask have the right skills to represent your practice in a very compassionate way and allow visitors to easily locate the content that's most relevant to their needs.

4. Looks Aren’t Everything, Content is Still The King

Your website might look exactly as you’d hoped—but that doesn’t mean it’s ready to go live. When you provide valuable content, it can allow patients to take care of their health needs. It will also inspire first-time visitors to click through content on your site and also encourage existing patients to visit often. According to Neil Patel's marketing statistics page, content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about three times as many leads.

Consider sharing valuable content such as the following:

  • Regular blog posts- Blogs can be an excellent way to share information about the topics that are relevant to your patient base.
  • A Q&A section- Consider featuring a Q&A page where you discuss common health-related questions that patients frequently ask you. This is a great opportunity to show off your expertise.

Looks-Arent-Everything,-Content-is-still-the-king

  • Patient reviews- Testimonials are a very powerful way and a great opportunity for improving your medical web design. Such reviews highlight your healthcare facility’s authenticity.

What Can We Do For You?

With a diversified team of subject matter experts and seasoned writers, we can help you to share valuable content through curating regular blog posts, featuring a Q&A page, and adding patient reviews. Testimonials are among the most prominent features that can be added to boost your potential patients’ confidence in your care.

5. Include Strong Imagery

Pictures used aptly can speak a lot more than words. Text-only posts can get monotonous. You can spice up engagement levels with compelling imagery. As a result, a site with visual content will perform better than one without it. In fact, posts that include images produce 50% higher engagement than text-only posts. What this means is that any website with visual content will perform better than one without it.

Let's walk through three key tips for making your visual content looks class apart to your patients and other visitors:

  • Feature original images and videos- Stock images won't resonate with visitors. Use individual images that speak more about your practice and your specialties.
  • Strategically place visual elements- The images and videos should be placed in a very strategic way so that they can be adding more to the given information. Wrong placement can make your viewers deviate from the core content.
  • Provide more educational content- Your website should have content that is engaging and informative, something that can add value to their learnings.  After all, visual learners make up 65% of the population

What can we do for you?

There’s an art to choosing the right photos and images for various sections and pages of your healthcare website. At JanBask, we employ both web designers and art directors to select and fine-tune imagery patients can identify with. We take the responsibility to make your web pages look consistent and rich with vibrant photography that helps incite excitement.

6. Identify Your Brand Messaging

When you choose a medical web design, remember that it can define and differentiate you from your competitors. It is best to have a clear brand message that stays with your website visitors. Often, people visiting have very little time to search for in-depth information. So, you must make the most of that short slice of time to reaffirm your brand message.

EFFECTIVE-BRAND-MESSAGING

Let's walk through a few key elements for accomplishing clear brand messaging in your medical web design:

  • Color scheme- The key to success is consistency. Make sure to use the same color scheme across all your web pages. For instance, doctors who serve a varied population should stick with warm, neutral colors. On the other hand, doctors who work with children may opt to use more playful colors.
  • Font- You should remain consistent in your choice of fonts. Keep it limited to one or two. For instance, if you work with a senior population or patients with disabilities, complicated designs with numerous fonts and thin lettering can be difficult to read.
  • Images- It is no secret that your images are an important element in medical web design. Your images should actively convey who you are and the services you provide. Remember, you’ll want to take original photos and use them in conjunction with high-impact text.

What can we do?

At JanBask, we can create and develop web pages that are a perfect combination of vibrant colors with neutral colors that blend in the visuals. Our team can help you to clearly define your brand and position and ensure that all elements are blended together to accurately communicate what your practice stands for and who it serves.

7. Ensure Security and Privacy and Adherence to Web Accessibility Guidelines.

Today’s consumers are cautious. Security settings will warn them when they are about to enter an unsafe site (one not protected with Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure, or HTTPS).

First and foremost, your website must be HIPPA compliant. Before you can focus on which healthcare website design elements get patients through your doors, you have to ensure the safety of all patients, new and existing. As a medical practice, you have the responsibility to protect any information transmitted to and from your systems over the internet. Clearly communicating that patient data is secure on your website and that the means of transmission is HIPAA-compliant puts your visitors at ease.

At the same time, you have to ensure that your website adheres to web accessibility policies. An accessible medical website design is pertinent to getting in front of more potential patients, especially if you serve individuals with disabilities.

Let's take a look into a few of the key requirements set forth by accessibility guidelines:

  • High-contrast colors- WCAG 2.1 guidelines require a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for all text and graphics. For context, black text on a white background has the highest contrast at 1:1. Keep in mind that the reverse (i.e. black text on a white background) is actually difficult to read and has the worst contrast at 21:1.
  • Large text- Text that's larger and has wider character strokes is easier to read at a lower contrast. WCAG 2.1 guidelines call for large-scale text and images to have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1. The guidelines define large text as text that is 18pt and larger, or 14pt and larger if it's bold
  • Alternative-text for links and images- Alternative-text (or alt-text for short) is a word or phrase added to the HTML code of a website under images, graphics, and other non-text elements. For images, alt-text should describe its purpose and appearance. For links, it should describe the content of the landing page.

How can we help you?

The moment you decide to handover your website work to us, be rest assured that all guidelines and rules will be followed and adhered to. Our team will make sure no stones are left unturned to create and boost your website. Our web designer and developer will go that extra mile for you to push your website ahead of the pack and make it stand head-and-shoulders above your competitors.

8. Improve Load Speed

Load speed can make or break a website. Today, loading is not just a matter of preference, but it is critical to your medical site’s success. In fact, a 1-second delay can result in a 7% reduction in conversions.

It’s quite simple: the longer a webpage takes to load, the more it will increase the bounce rates. In short, you need to focus on optimizing website speed.

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Here’s an attention-grabbing insight. According to a study, pages loading within two seconds show an average bounce rate of 9%, and pages loading in five seconds have bounce rates to the tune of 38%.

To quicken your load time, let's explore a few options that can be easily incorporated into your medical website design:

  • Limit and compress images- It's easy to identify the major culprit of slow pages: large image files. Compressing images can save you up to 1MB of load time. As discussed in previous points, it's best to place visuals strategically instead of overloading your pages.
  • Reduce the number of redirects- Each time a page redirects to another page, visitors must wait for the HTTP request-response cycle to complete. Ease of navigation and being able to readily find the most frequently used web features are likely to keep visitors on your website and not jumping to your competitors.
  • Minify the code- Achieve this by getting rid of extra spaces, commas, and other unnecessary characters in addition to any code comments, formatting, and unused code.

What can JanBask Digital Design do for you?

Our talented team can optimize your mobile page speeds as much as possible, as it is still the preferred method for browsing. We use tools like Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) that allow mobile pages to load much faster.

Plus, we can quickly try limiting and compressing images and reducing the number of redirects by measuring with Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool. The results highlight potential loading issues and adjust your web pages to minimize load time.

Features of Medical Website Design

An extensive feature set is critical to the success of your medical site. Here’s a quick peek at some must-have features.

  • Full Contact Data: It is vital to provide clear and accessible contact information. Remember that the patient should not spend extra time to find the addresses or phone numbers of your clinic or health care center.
  • Main Services: It is significant that you communicate the kind of healthcare services that you are offering.
  • Online Consultation: Offer consultations with physicians’ online, which will facilitate website visitors and future patients.
  • Appointments: The feature is a must-have to make an appointment with a doctor remotely.
  • Information about Doctors: It is a great way to attract patients to your clinic. So, add detailed information about doctors, including their experience, awards, achievements, specialization, and more.
  • Success Stories: Another significant facet is to have case studies of successful treatment and before-and-after stories. The information can empower patients to take necessary action.
  • Blog Section: It is essential to have an active blog section where you can add news from the medical field, treatment options, useful tips, and more.
  • Patient Feedback: Testimonials are very critical. Remember to add reviews that can help convince other people to go to your clinic

Here are some quick tips for don’ts in website designs.

  • Websites that are not self-explanatory
  • Sites that are difficult to navigate
  • Sites that have too many pop-ups
  • Sites that use overly small font sizes
  • Websites that have unclear link text and dead links
  • Websites that are not mobile responsive

Build Outstanding Medical Websites with JanBask

When it comes to your healthcare website design, patient behavior and expectations should always come first. Sometimes, doctors write or design websites with their own preferences in mind. But always remember: you are not the patient.

Ultimately, as healthcare professionals, you can discover the power of a well-designed medical website that can empower patients with cutting-edge digital initiatives. With the right technology solution provider like JanBask, the medical website designing journey can be very meaningful. We keep your mission care model at heart and improve patient outcomes, quality of care, and boosting ROI. We, at JanBask have helped many healthcare businesses with impressive digital solutions. With ample experience, we know what works for healthcare providers and understand the needs of your practice as well as your patients. Let’s talk for more details.

Wrapping Up Medical Website Design Tips

You can quickly turn your medical website into a useful tool for your healthcare business. All you need to do is strategically use the medical web design principles and stay tuned to changing trends. Hopefully, you can take these medical website design tips and implement them on your website to improve the overall performance and increase new patient leads.

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Emilio Davis

Great read. Thanks for sharing

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Knox Miller

This blog has everything I was looking for. Good one

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Adonis Smith

I see a lot of new information in this post. Keep it up

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Aidan Johnson

It is worth sparing time to read such nicely curated blogs


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